Mortimer Duke's page

1-on-1 spell duels...

very interesting

Mortimer Duke wrote:

I have a question about the fluff in the product summary.

Is there any explanation how there is life on this planet?

Without the sun plants would die, which would mean herbivores would die out, then carnivores. There would be very little oxygen.

My feeling on this was that the necromantic energy of the planet also infuse everything slightly so while sunlight is not high, plants still get "energy" to grow and live.

Quote:

Then there is temperature. Now the warmth of the planet's core could keep the deep oceans warm for thousands of years, but the surface of the world would freeze over quickly.

But you have to think what kind of effect an impact event like a meteor would have on the planet. Overnight mass extinction and of hit landed in a area of major sorce of water, instantaneous vaporization of the largest water supply. Plus the real interesting point is Abaddon has a "black hole" effect on teleport error and that kind of dimensional movement so an lot of the life that gets dumbed there is from some where else. This new life interacts with the life or unlife already on Abaddon and your get a very unique microcosm.

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I know it's a fantasy game, but I am still logical person.

Just because you may not understand it does not mean it is not logical in the large scheme of things.Or better but, God does not play dice -- Albert Einstein.

Thank you very much.

I threw the logical bit in there only because I didn't want the answer to simply be it's a fantasy game. There are many settings I dig that aren't scientifically sound, but there is a reason to how the world works.

Cheers

I have a question about the fluff in the product summary.

Is there any explanation how there is life on this planet?

Without the sun plants would die, which would mean herbivores would die out, then carnivores. There would be very little oxygen.

Then there is temperature. Now the warmth of the planet's core could keep the deep oceans warm for thousands of years, but the surface of the world would freeze over quickly.

I know it's a fantasy game, but I am still logical person.

Irv is banned for being a young whippersnapper.

therealthom is banned because thom is probably pronounced tom

Arazyrn is banned for having an old looking avatar.

Ouch...James Sutter calling Jacobs a slacker

...when Jacobs and Christopher Carey were saying the same thing about the indolent peanut butter loving Sutter not that long ago...

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/2010/july/v5748dyo5lb8a

WHAT?! No Gilligan?

Next blog post on Serpent's Skull needs to be titled "A Three-Hour Tour"...

;-)

haha. My first thought was where's Locke?

I too, have seen more Chaotic Stupid than CN over the years. However, I have seen a few characters in fiction and film that I use as representative examples of CN that avoids the Chaotic Stupid trap.

Jack Sparrow - the quintessential CN character, Jack is motivated primarily with maintaining his freedom. While he arguably has good tendencies, he betrays & schemes to his advantage even if it puts his friends or allies in precarious situations.

Garret the Thief- Garret, if asked, would portray himself as Neutral Evil. However, he has his own moral compass and acts in an altruistic fashion in a fairly consistent basis. He can be spiteful and quash his conscience on a whim, however, which is why I think of him as being CN rather than true N.

Conan- Again, a character with his own moral code. Conan breaks the law when it suits him, sometimes only for the glory of stealing a prize and he subverts the chain of command if his commander is weak. Yet he will honor his word when given, and protect women & children (mainly women). I can't put him in the evil bracket comfortably as his "good streak/heroic streak" surfaces far too frequently. Yet clearly, he's too selfish to be amongst the ranks of CG.

Long John Silver - Another pirate. Long John has evil tendencies where Sparrow has good ones. A lot of it is bluster b/c he knows his fellow pirates would turn on him the instant he shows weakness, yet he isn't totally without morality as evidenced by the kindness & quasi-fatherly role he takes with Jim Hawkins. Although much more strongly influenced by greed than Sparrow (hence the evil tendencies), Long John is also motivated by maintaining his freedom to control his own destiny.

As shown above, in my view, CN works best when the character IDs what's most important to the character above all else. If the character is solely consumed by greed & selfishness, they're NE. If they're violent sociopaths, CE. But if they're n'er-do-wells that value their freedom (but not...

Ahh Conan the might very well be CN at it's best.

I like Chaotic Neutral quite a lot actually.

I think some people may take the "chaotic" in Chaotic Neutral too far. I have never heard of Chaotic Good character being called completely random or insane, and they are just as chaotic as a Chaotic Neutral character.

And of course Neutral doesn't mean random, it could be one who looks at both a sides or more Buddhist that there is no side to choose.

I think it's weird that CN is pigeonholed as the pick the alignment if you want to be crazy and mess with the party of course that should be nipped in the bud.

I would put some of great movie characters as CN, The Man with No Name, Inigo Montoya, and I think the perfect answer Ash from Evil Dead.

Three characters that could plan, follow through on the plan with action, and weren't insane.

They weren't really good, all though their actions helped people. They weren't really evil, all though they each did what best served their needs not considering the cost. Yet, each is dramatically different.

So if you have a player that wants to play CN so he can be a jerk have him extrapolate more on what type of neutral he is aiming for.

Because bat guano insane, is just that. If you could ask a insane character what alignment they are they would give an answer like banana.

In my first 3.0 game I played a CN fighter. After stating him up and thinking up a quick background. I was told by the DMthat I could pretty much throw it out the window. That a CN character's story wasn't important, just that I observe the one rule about CN. EVERYTHING IS RANDOM!

I asked what he meant. Well all my choices, actions had to be made at the spur of the moment. I HAD to roll a % to do anything. If I wanted to attack, who I attacked, etc. Anything you could thing of I pretty much had to roll for it.

Because of this I wound up attacking or turning on the party alot of the time. Suffice it to say I didn't stay with that group for too long. But this idea of playing still seems to linger, even in my current group.

Wow that's the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I could understand why you didn't last long there.

Lion Tamer Build - courtesy of Chronicles:Pathfinder Podcast Episode 2

http://www.d20radio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=6027

As it turns out, we could actually create an "actual play" podcast without much trouble at all, however...

Is there "actual interest" in this "actual play"? Who wants to listen to sosmething like this? What else should accompany it that would make it more interesting and engaging for you?

I would be very interested in an actual play podcast.

I think I'm going to go with the Class & Stats don't really matter.

It is more what kind of characters are in the party.

There is a 2E campaign of infamy among my friends, where the Ranger in our group kept trying to be the leader. Here is a snippet.

The rest of the group consisted of a Psionic, Paladin, and a Wizard. The ranger kept messing up rolls and such so during the course of the game the group consider him rather incompetent. When the group would huddle for a plan, the Ranger would just go do what he thought was right without conferring.

Now I will give credit to the Player. He had envisioned Aragorn with the Ranger and the Ranger believed he should be the leader, but gameplay had been his enemy. He had fumbled in nearly every encounter tripping over his own feet or placing an arrow in an ally (yeah our DM was that cruel). During a Dungeon crawl the Ranger convinced us which way to go and led us into Ogre's lair. By this time The Wizard became so infuriated with the incompetence he picked up the Ranger (the wizard was buff STR 15 or 16) and threw the Ranger at the Ogres as cannon fodder. The noble Paladin didn't like this maneuver scolded the Wizard later, but it had protected the Wizard and Psionic from being surrounded.

They worst came when the goal was to sneak inside a enemy camp and if possible take out or capture the leader. The group huddled near the edge of a encampment surveying the area on how to best sneak in the well lit Leader's tent. The Ranger was just trying to prove himself by then, to show the party he was worthy and ran up to the leader's tent. The Party watched in horror as the Ranger stuck his head into the tent (The Player was not paying attention when the DM said the tent was well lit, and thought he was being sneaking looking around with infravision, alas no take backs) What the Ranger saw was a small group of the biggest baddest mofos in the Army look at him and say "Intruder!"
The party rushed to save him again. Almost a TPK, but my Wizard didn't make it.

Most recently I played an aloof, narcissistic swashbuckler. He was the type of person that if asked a question he didn't really know the answer to he would just make something up and he believed what he made up, major Delusions of Grandeur. Now I didn't expect this character to become a leader, but the party ended up with two not so bright barbarians and cleric who kept running from danger. The barbarians were more inclined to listen to the idiot swashbuckler than the intelligent coward healer.

Does Wayne Reynolds' art just keep getting more phenomenal or is it just me?

Those pencils are incredible the tiny thumbnails don't do it justice.

Well that certainly is a surprise...now I just need to get a group to 10th level.

What peanut butter retains all of it's natural goodness after being processed by a factory? Can you recommend any brands Lilith?

Why not just make your own. It's super simple you need either a cheap food processor or possibly a decent quality blender (I know my blender has a recipe for it, but wouldn't want to vouch for all blenders)

Most recipes just call for Peanuts and maybe a little peanut oil. Throw it in the food processor and destroy until smooth. Want it chunky? add some more peanuts to the smooth PB and only slightly destroy some more.

Later I can tell you how to make your own jam & jelly.

The following recipe is easy and it's fancy for PB.

Alton Brown's Peanut Butter
Ingredients

* 15 ounces shelled and skinned
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
* 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil

Directions

Place the peanuts, salt and honey into the bowl of a food processor. Process for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Place the lid back on and continue to process while slowly drizzling in the oil and process until the mixture is smooth, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Place the peanut butter in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Mortimer Duke wrote:

Mmm...I love peanut butter. I love it on apples, celery, crackers, graham crackers, in Thai food, and of course on chocolate.

However I don't think I have ever kept a jar in my office...

...is it in case of emergencies? in case of Apocalypse break glass

Blatantly yes. But also, aside from being one of the, like, 5 foods on the Sutter diet - hold on, lets count: cheese pizza, extra pizza sauce, beans, french fries, crackers, peanut butter... I think I saw him eat ice cream once, and noodles once - okay, so like 7-ish foods on the Sutter diet, it's also a daily intelligence test. That jar has been in there for months, so all that's left is the peanut butter caking the sides. Were it a normal shaped container, you could just knife it out, but that's not the case here. So, for Sutter to butter a cracker, he has to stick his whole fist into jar like a lab monkey playing a particularly messy game of Operation. When he can no longer snack without having to make use of a whole roll of paper towels, it's time to stop editing for the day.

lol daily intelligence test

and maybe Sutter should get a new jar or switch to celery it's good for the long reach scoop.

Mmm...I love peanut butter. I love it on apples, celery, crackers, graham crackers, in Thai food, and of course on chocolate.

However I don't think I have ever kept a jar in my office...

...is it in case of emergencies? in case of Apocalypse break glass?

Looking forward to the book, Amazon says OCT 2010 is it still that far away?

In my games we always started 1st level with maximum possible hit points then rolled after that when leveling.

I think I like playing 1st level more than 10th. I enjoy the challenge, when I can suddenly crush the monsters I lose interest.